Gaijin - What does this mean in Japanese Culture?

• PrideFC

  21 May 04, 14:11

  Can anyone answer this?
• Allendro

  21 May 04, 15:17

  Foreigner/westerner as in ang moh?
• PrideFC

  21 May 04, 21:23

  Is it considered as an Insult?
• the Bear

  21 May 04, 21:24

  nope.. why should it?
  
• SGpork

  22 May 04, 08:09

  
• PrideFC

  23 May 04, 02:57

  I've seen different sources all saying different things.
  
  Some say that Gaijin is only used to describe a 'White' foreigner/westerner. Whereas a 'Black' person would be called something else.
• the Bear

  23 May 04, 03:06

  well, for a japanese to use it, it supposedly is demeaning...
  
  but look at it this way.. for a racist to try to use a "demeaning" term is actually praise, therefore i asked "why should it"..
  
  the word is actually derived from the word "gaikokujin" which means "foreigner"..
  
  but the japanese were such a closed society in the past, that xenophobia and all that is the norm rather than the exception.. the word "gaijin" is used to emphasise someone who "did not belong".. as in "you are not one of us"..
  
  as one who is pretty glad he's not one of them, i would actually be bloody happy to be called a gaijin by them.. it's just my perverse and warped nature
• PrideFC

  23 May 04, 03:18

  Thank you for your explaination.
• boariggy

  23 May 04, 03:26

  Originally posted by PrideFC:

  Is it considered as an Insult?

  Yes but its not that rude
  it means barbarian
• PrideFC

  23 May 04, 04:18

  Originally posted by boariggy:

  Yes but its not that rude
  it means barbarian

  See what I mean by conflicting sources?
  
• boariggy

  23 May 04, 04:20

  Originally posted by PrideFC:

  See what I mean by conflicting sources?